'In the Heat of the Night' was a hit song before becoming a TV series

Yes, it's true; Bryan Adams is not Stuck in the ‘80s. While his greatest chart success came in the ‘90s, Adams can not hide from his ‘80s history and there are those who have the cassette to prove it.

While there were a few isolated cases of cassette singles in the early ‘80s, in wasn't until March of 1987 when A&M Records decided to be the first record company to promote a cassette single along with the traditional 45 vinyl record. The test case was Bryan Adams and his first single off the Into the Fire album entitled Heat of the Night. The single was a success as the song reached No. 6 on the U.S. Charts. While the song is not entirely lost, it does lack airplay compared to some of Adam's other hits such as his lone No. 1 hit in the ‘80s Heaven and other rockers.

To differentiate itself from other cassettes, the Heat of the Night cassette version had a bright red tint to its plastic cover. As a collector's item, you can purchase a copy from EBay for around ten bucks. Meant to replace the '45 vinyl version, the "Cassingle", along with the Sony Walkman, enjoyed a brief time of success before succumbing to the digital age and was phased out by the start of the 21st century.

The song Heat of Night predates the Carroll O'Conner TV series In the Heat of the Night by a year and while the song conjures up visions of The South, the song is actually inspired by Adam's trip to Berlin and the Cold War.

Adams still tours constantly and later this fall will be releasing a 30th anniversary edition of the "Reckless" album. http://www.bryanadams.com/

About this blog

Relive the '80s music, movies and culture with Tampa Bay Times correspondent Steve Spears. A teen during the greatest decade ever, Steve is obsessed with everything from Duran Duran to Journey, John Hughes to John Cusack, and parachute pants to big hair.